tl;dr-version up front:
for a bit more background info, let’s start with the pole lap:
You can see how the Hypercars have more weight to handle transferring from left to right, just take a look at the 2020 pole lap as a comparison and especially the fast left-right transfers in the Porsche curves and Ford chicanes.
it’s uncanny how good Kobayashi is with trashing his car around La Sarthe, and especially how he manages to get clean laps.
For reference, watch this epic pole lap that will likely stand for a few more years:
you can see how damn quick those monsters were!
… in any case, pole went to Kobayashi, and in a surprising turn of events, the #7 was spared the role of getting all the bad luck in the world this time.
The #8 got hit in the first lap, and suffered a few more mishaps throughout the race, though did hang on to finish on the podium.
Kobayashi thus got his well-deserved first le mans crown, and alpine stood on the overall podium as well, so far, so good.
What’s more surprising is the fact that all hypercars had their little issues, but didn’t show the (usual) teething problems we’ve come to expect with the introduction of a new class. Granted, an August date meant there were two more months to bullet proof the cars, but the brake issues for both the Toyota and Glickenhaus did not materialize, much to my surprise, to say the least.
As such, i found the race a bit hard to read, esp. with rain at the beginning of the race, reminded me of the 2016 start (which incidentally saw Toyota experience their most brutal backstabbing breakdown back then… only to be topped the year after with ridiculous bad luck in a few minutes’ time), and how it takes a bit longer until the race starts to shake out and giving you an idea where we are headed (most crucially, before reliability issues kick in).
I was wondering whether the Glickenhauses would stick to a gameplan of getting to finish at any costs, i.e. replace the brake discs and calipers at preset intervals, or changing them. on demand - neither seemed to be necessary(!) at all. All around great effort, unfortunately not enough to get a spot on the podium, both both cars running at the finish does show that this was no fluke - it’s been their first Le Mans, after all!
The Toyotas only had one instance where a car went straight on (as usual this year…), but they had enough of an advantage to handle fuel pickup/flow issues that meant they’ve lost up to seven(!) laps per stint… the last decade of bad luck probably helped to enable the Team to overcome these issues, turn their wounded cars around and bring both cars home, a considerable and commendable effort that’s a bit lost in the “Toyota won again” headlines.
Bit unsure about Alpine - good effort for a single-car-effort, semi-private team no less, but considering the misshaps of Toyota, they should have at least gotten the second place locked in… otoh, if the Renault board considers a lucky 3rd place instead of an unlucky didn’t-get-the-2nd-place-they-should’ve-gotten, I am OK with that.
P2 was a single make affair, and as such, the exceptional performance of WRT did ensure we have another strong contender for the Audi Hypercar effort from 2023 onwards. Their execution was flawless, and even when comically bad luck struck in the last lap, the second car was there to pick up the spoils to come home 1st - against stalwarts like Jota and United Autosports, no less!
Panis (the Monaco F1 winner, yes) taking third or fourth place iirc was a nice surprise, against such strong opposition.
GTLM saw Ferrari obliterate Porsche, and Pier Guidi picking up another major 24h win this year. Corvette taking 2nd spot after a year away will hopefully help them get the board to sign off more visits in this decade! The underducks livery of the privateer “Pro” car 911 probably was best livery 2021 btw…
GTAm did get somewhat swamped by other classes, so i didn’t really catch most plotlines there…
all in all, a race where it will be interesting to pick up the plotlines that will come to the fore in the next few weeks at the earliest, e. g. what issue Toyota had or what minor niggles Glickenhaus had (and we didn’t realize during the race).
